Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-05
THE DRINKING HABIT.
Is Society To-day ANY More Temperate
Than in Former Days2

IL Society To-day ANY More Temperate
Than in Former Days2
In any comparison between the present
generation and our grandfathers or great
grandfathers, it is usually assumed that we
| are superior to- them in our temperate use
of intoxicating liquors. Gentlemen no
| longer come reeling into the drawing room
after debauch at the dinner table. Five
bottle men have gone the way OF the world,
and the days of prolonged rotations are at
an end. At dinner party heavy drinking
| is regarded as a disgraceful anachronlsm,
and man who gets drunk excludes him
self from good society. All this IS very
true. but it does not prove the assertion
that we are a more sober people than our
grandfathers; it only proves that we do
not get drunk in the same way as they did.
| II is quite possible to drink q good deal
! of LIQUOR, even if strong liquor, without
Welding 10 that absolute intoxication
| which reveals itself in inarticulate speech,
staggering movements, or senseless stupor.
| A good deal depends on whether the liquor
| is consumed at a sitting or in drains taken
at intervals during the day Violent or
helpless intoxication is but one among the
many phases of drunkenness. 1t may be
said that few men now allow themselves to
| be seen in this condition. Some OF these
are confirmed sots and are always tipping,
| but as a rule, when men of this class get
drunk it is not by means of habitual drains
! but as the natural conclusion of drinking
bout in which they have engaged with the
distinct expectation, if not expressly for
the sake, of this result. There is a " big
drunk occurring with more or less fire.
aueney, and in the intervals they are per-
| haps as sober as judges. This was once the
way in. which gentlemen settled down to
their cups, but the fashion has been grad
ually descending in the social scale.
But this is only one kind of drunken
ness, and not in all respects the most dam
gerous and destructive kind. Its very
J grossness and the violent external indica-
lions which accompany it supply to some
extent warning, if not a corrective. 1t is
a rock on which no vessel can split una
wares There is a sharp, unmistakable
penalty for each carouse, which suggests
reflection and encourages reform. If man
goes to the dogs in this manner, he goes
with his eyes open, and everybody can see
plainly what has happened, aud can put
together cause and effect and draw the nee
essary moral. 1t is the strong still current
of the stream above the falls, the fatal
grip of which is not appreciated until it is
too late to struggle against it, which is
most to be dreaded.
1t is possible for man to be very much
the worse for drink, ss the phrase is, both
in moral and physical sense, without
showing it in his gait or speech, and even
TO be all but confirmed drunkard without
himself being more than family aware of
the peril in which he stands. Hence the
serious and alarming aspect of the kind Of
drunkenness that is now becoming so pre-
valent in society, even in quarters where it
has hitherto been little suspected; drunk
enness which, stopping short OF absolute
intoxication, takes the form of perpetual
and feverish craving for alcoholic excite
ments, for nips and drains, for odd glasses
of whisky straight and tipples of brandy
at irregular hours. As mere mat
ter OF hygiene, it would probably
be better for man to get fairly
drunk once or twice every few weeks than
to Weld himself in bondage to an evil de-
sire which, when once INDUCED, establishes
its dominion by preying upon the stomach
and destroying the appetite of its wretched
victim, and thus compelling him to depend
on stimulants for sustenanee. 1t is possible
for time to make alcohol a substitute for
food, but, of course, it can only be for a
time, and the end is certain, and often
swift in coming. There is, of course a
constant tendency to increase the dose.
and the tippler's condition is always be-
coming more pitiable and helpless but his
descent is smooth and not interrupted by
the shocks which pull up the more violent
drunkard in his desperate career, and
almost compel him. in spite Of himself, to
reflect on the misery and degradation
which he is accommodating for himself
Louisville Cotrier-J Journal.